Kenya's carbon credit plan hopes to offset industrial pollution

KASIGAU, Kenya--When 61-year old Mercy Joshua was young, the vast forests of southeastern Kenya teemed with wildlife, but decades of unchecked deforestation by locals have devastated the land.

She watched forests dwindle and rivers dry up across her homeland of Kasigau — a semi-arid savanna grassland dotted with shrubs, woodland and small rugged hills — as people cut down the trees to scratch a living by selling them for firewood.

But now, after decades of degradation, a local project has found a way to preserve the forests and support the community by getting international companies to pay to plant trees.

“We were losing everything, but thanks to the project we have learnt even how to live with the wild animals,” Joshua, a mother of four, told AFP.

“These days, we don't cut down trees ... they are our friends,” she added.

The project has breathed new life into Kasigau, a 500,000 acre dryland forest 330 kilometers southeast of the capital Nairobi that connects the two halves of Kenya's renowned Tsavo national park.

Founded in 2009, it is part of a U.N.-backed carbon credit scheme aimed at stopping 54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere over the next 30 years, equivalent to 1.2 million tonnes a year.

Leading buyers of the credits include Microsoft, Barclays Bank and Kenya Airways, which have invested US$3.5 million each since the project started.

These companies buy carbon credits by paying to conserve existing trees and plant new ones. The forests soak in carbon from the atmosphere, helping to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the air and so offset what the companies release themselves.

'No jobs, no water'

The Kasigau scheme has also created a new source of income for impoverished local communities where most people scrape a living by hunting animals for meat or illegal charcoal production.

“There are no jobs here, no water, and I have a family to feed,” said Matthew Mutie, a 40-year-old father of three who supports his family by making charcoal for around US$3 a sack.